392 SANITARY CONDITIONS 



IMPORTANT DISEASES ENCOUNTERED. 



By far the greater proportion of diseases treated in the various dispensa- 

 ries were of the commoner sort. We, however, were on the alert to select for 

 special study the more important cases which every now and then presented 

 themselves; and it is to these cases that I wish to call particular attention, 

 although I shall have something to say regarding the less important diseases. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



A disease which of course must always receive most careful consideration 

 in any country is that of tuberculosis, the great white plague, which has 

 existed for so many years in every latitude. As the Bahamas have often been 

 recommended as a health resort, especially for pulmonary conditions, this is an 

 important question. Personally, I consider the climate of the Bahamas a 

 favorable one for tubercular conditions, especially that type of pulmonary 

 tuberculosis (phthisis florida, or galloping consumption), 'where there is a 

 rapid softening and breaking down of the lung tissues. In such cases 

 living in high altitudes is apt to be dangerous. Of the many patients visited, 

 examined, and treated at the various clinics on shore and on the vessel's deck, I 

 do not remember seeing a single case of "galloping consumption," but the 

 several cases which came to our notice, all belonging to the fibroid or chronic 

 type (phthisis fibrosa], in which there was generally a history of some years 

 duration, and physical examination showed pleural thickenings and fibroid 

 conditions. Hemorrhage seemed to be much less common in these cases than 

 in tuberculosis patients of the United States. 



We did not encounter many cases of tuberculosis in other parts of the 

 body. A case of hip disease in a little girl at Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera, and one 

 or two patients with scrofulous glands and scars of old abscesses, were the 

 only exceptions. We did not meet with a single instance of lupus or tuber- 

 culosis of the skin. The ordinary bronchial and catarrhal troubles, such as 

 asthma and corizas which are of such frequent occurrence in the United 

 States, are extremely rare in the Bahamas. In fact the members of the 

 Expedition were much surprised at the amount of exposure they could undergo 

 without contracting the slightest cold. Although my companions were fre- 

 quently wet to the skin and at times, especially during rough weather at sea, 

 were obliged to sleep in damp clothing, there was but one case of sore throat 

 developed, and this was exceedingly slight and of short duration. We were 

 all surprised at the amount that one could use the voice, either in singing or 

 shouting, without the slightest fatigue of the vocal organs. 



